


Taking the Risk

by fenellaevangela



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-30
Updated: 2014-09-30
Packaged: 2018-02-19 10:07:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2384453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fenellaevangela/pseuds/fenellaevangela
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ellen and Jo made it out of the Apocalypse alive. The question is what to do now that the world hasn't ended.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Taking the Risk

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Canon_Is_Relative](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Canon_Is_Relative/gifts).



Ellen always wanted her little girl to go to college, but she hadn't ever considered going with her. For Jo, it was different; she was still young enough that no one would bat an eye at her being a student full time. She could decide to do anything, go anywhere she wanted, because her life had barely had time to settle on a track. But Ellen, well. Ellen had the Roadhouse and she had the hunter network, and that had always seemed like a good enough life for her, even after Bill died.

The thing was, with an apocalypse behind them and the Roadhouse long gone, that well-worn life was already just a memory. This was a chance that, god forbid, neither Ellen nor Jo would ever get again.

Ellen decided to float the idea over a cheap diner breakfast.

The diner wasn't much to look at, but the booths were upholstered and the coffee was hot. Ellen waited until the waitress brought them their scrambled eggs and toast (Ellen) and flapjacks with syrup (Jo) before starting the conversation.

“So, it's been a few weeks since we got word from Dean,” she said.

Jo didn't bother answering, just raised her eyebrows while she chewed.

Ellen sipped her coffee. “What I'm getting at is, we need to make a plan.”

“A plan?” Jo repeated. “A plan for what?”

Ellen put on what she hoped was her least confrontational mom face. “Well, we've been on the road for a while now. Have you thought about what we're going to do, now that there's no apocalypse needing averting?”

Jo took a few bites of flapjacks before answering, but when she did she just sounded confused. “I guess I don't see what you're getting at, Mom. I thought we were . . . already doing what we're going to do.”

“Jo, honey . . .”

“No, really,” Jo said, voice rising. “There are still hunts out there waiting for someone who knows how to handle them. I thought we were over this, I thought you finally understood. I'm already doing what I want to do.”

“I know,” Ellen said. “And you're good at it. I'm not saying that you shouldn't be a hunter - ”

“Well, _good_.” 

“ - but darling, hunters who let this job become their whole life don't tend to hang around very long.”

Jo just stared at her mother for a moment before letting her gaze fall to her plate. A silence grew awkwardly between them. Ellen hadn't meant Bill, had never thought that Bill let the job come before his family, but she knew that he was who Jo was thinking about.

After taking a few bites of her breakfast, Ellen decided to bite the bullet.

“I was thinking – and this is just a suggestion, mind, not me telling you what to do – that now is a good time to reconsider college.”

Jo shifted in her seat and Ellen knew that the next thing out of her mouth was going to be an excuse.

“Mom, I already tried going to college. It didn't work. I didn't _fit in_ there.”

Ellen shrugged. “So we pick somewhere else. Just because one school didn't work doesn't mean there isn't one that will.”

“Wait,” Jo said, narrowing her eyes. “What do you mean, 'we'”?

Finishing the last of her breakfast, Ellen pushed away her plate and gave Jo a capital-L Look. “You'd rather I stay behind and live in the truck?”

* * *

It took a solid week of persuasion before Jo agreed to give the idea a shot. More than a little of that time was spent trying to convince her that Ellen wasn't just looking to follow her to school so she could keep an eye on her; Jo had a hard time believing that her mother was actually interested in subjecting herself to the student lifestyle. What finally convinced her that Ellen was serious was a conversation about majors.

It started with Jo sifting through the pile of college brochures that, as it turned out, her mother had been gradually accumulating for weeks. Most were about the schools as a whole, but it didn't take long before she noticed that all of the program-specific brochures had one thing in common.

“Mom?” Jo called.

“Yeah?” answered Ellen, sticking her head out of the bathroom. “What is it, darling?”

Jo held up two of the college brochures from the pile. “Is _this_ what you want to major in?”

Ellen nodded. “I think so, yeah. Seemed appropriate. What of it?”

The brochures were from Ohio State University and Oregon University. Jo hadn't been thinking about either school, particularly, but Ellen obviously had been. Both brochures were for folklore studies.

The thing was, Ellen had never talked about wanting to go back to school. But if she was just suggesting going back to school for Jo's benefit, tagging along so that Jo didn't drop out again, it would make sense for her to choose the same major as Jo, or at least a less specialized major, like English or even History. Folklore wasn't either of those. It was something Ellen must really be interested in, and not only that; a folklore major was something something Ellen could use _for hunting_.

“You want to keep hunting. This,” Jo said, shaking the brochures for emphasis, “is for hunting.”

“Yeah, it is,” Ellen nodded. She emerged from the bathroom and took the brochures out of Jo's hand. “Going to school, having a home and a job; those aren't part of some separate world that hunters aren't welcome in. Do you understand that?”

Jo shrugged. “Yeah, sure. I mean, Bobby's got a house.”

Ellen gave her daughter an appraising look; if the girl thought that was a convincing answer, she didn't have the acting chops a hunter really needed. “Now, don't you think I can't read you like a book, Joanna Beth Harvelle. I see what you're thinking: Bobby's not a real hunter, he's someone hunters go to for help. Right?”

Jo rolled her eyes. “Okay, yeah. Yeah, I do.”

Ellen sighed. “Well, you forget that idea right now. Hell's bells, darling, do you think the only way to be a real hunter is to give up your whole life?”

“Hunting _is_ a life,” Jo insisted.

“Hunting is a _job_ ,” Ellen countered, “and you don't have to pick whether to have a job or a home, a job or a family. I plan to keep hunting, and going back to school could help me be better at it, but it's going to be a _part_ of my life. It's not going to define it.”

After a pause, Jo answered. “Are you really serious about this? School and hunting and everything – you're not just trying to get me to go so I'll change my mind about being a hunter?”

“My problem was never with you being a hunter -” Ellen was interrupted with a scoff from Jo. “Well, maybe a little bit. Mother's prerogative. But what I was afraid of was you being nothing else. There's more to be had in this world, darling.”

The life Ellen described wasn't what Jo had ever envisioned for herself. College hadn't worked for her the first time around because she felt that the only way to fit in was to abandon the world she had grown up in and all the plans she used to have for her life. But if Ellen thought it was worth a shot, and she was serious about supporting Jo in hunting even while getting an education . . . 

“Then all right,” Jo said. “Let's do it. Let's go back to school.”


End file.
